Emily Dickinson Biography

Emily or should I say Poetess Dickinson was born in Amherst, Massachuetts on
December 10, 1830. Emily lived secluded in the house she was born in, except for
the short time she attended Amherst Academy and Holyoke Female Seminary, until
her death on May 15, 1886 due to Bright's disease.

Emily was an energetic and outgoing woman while attending the Academy and
Seminary. It was later, during her mid-twenties, that Emily began to grow
reclusive. She attended almost exclusively to household chores and to writing
poetry.

Many scholars have tried to understand and theorize why Emily decided to
seclude herself in her home and write about the most intimate experiences and
feelings of life. I think that the best of these theories is that Emily could
not write about the world with out first backing away from the it and
contemplating it from a distance.

Emily had a few friends and acquaintances from day to day. One of these
aquaintances was Thomas Wentworth Higginson whom she sent a few pieces of her
poetry to. He rejected her poems, but he was eventually the first to publish her
work after her death. Emily only had a six or seven of her poems published
during her lifetime--and those without her consent. The number is argued over
because one poem was published more than once.

It was after her death that her poems were discovered. It is estimated that
Emily wrote over 1700 poems.